Slide assemblies having slide members and bearings can provide slidable translation of one body relative to another. Slide assemblies are very commonly found in articles of furniture, such as cabinets having drawers. In such constructions, the slide assemblies also may be referred to as drawer slides and they are intended for mounting a drawer to a cabinet and for providing a way to move the drawer between a fully closed position within the cabinet to an open position with the drawer extending outward from the cabinet. Standard slide assemblies tend to be mounted in pairs, with one on each of the left and right outer sides of the drawer, or in an undermount format beneath and along respective outer left and right edges of the drawer. In such configurations, on each side of the drawer, a first slide member is attached to the cabinet and a second slide member is attached to the drawer. Bearings, such as ball, roller, or other friction reducing elements typically are disposed between the slide members for smooth movement of the drawer relative to the cabinet. The bearings may be organized and located within bearing retainers that may be mounted to one or more of the slide members, or may be permitted to move with respect to the slide members. Also, there may be a third slide member coupled to and between the first and second slide members, in which case there are bearings between the respective slide members to permit further telescopic extension of the first slide member relative to the second slide member.
In slide assembly configurations, it is possible that a drawer front will not maintain appropriate alignment with other cabinet features, such as adjacent drawers or doors, if the drawer to which the drawer front is affixed is subjected to a large load when in a closed position. Thus, depending on the extent of the load and its position toward the front of a drawer, a second slide member may tend to tip downward at its front relative to the respective first slide member. This may occur when the drawer is fully retracted and within the cabinet, leading to unsightly alignment or interference issues for the drawer front and to excessive loading on the bearings that otherwise would be supporting the front portion of the drawer. The large load also may cause alignment and clearance issues within the slide assembly when at or near the closed position.
While there exist roller assemblies that provide a pair of rollers near the front of the second slide member when a drawer is in a closed position to carry some of the load that would otherwise be on the slide assembly bearings, such roller assemblies either provide rollers on axles that are fixed in place, or provide rollers on axles that are mounted to a rocker member that is pivotally mounted. Unfortunately, rollers mounted in a fixed position are susceptible to overloading of one roller relative to the other and may provide an on or off feeling when engaging or disengaging the rollers. The rollers mounted to a pivotal rocker member lessen some of the negative affects of the fixed rollers, but unfortunately place all of the load on the single pivot provided to permit the tilting of the pivotal member to which the axles are mounted, with the pivot at a fixed position relative to a first slide member. Also, the use of a rocker member results in all of the inputs to one of the rollers being transmitted directly to the other roller, such that as one roller is moved downward, the rocker member tilts and the other roller is moved upward, with the single pivot still being subjected to all of the load.
It would be desirable to provide load adaptive roller carriage assemblies for use with a slide assembly where a roller carriage assembly can provide auxiliary load support near the front of the slide assembly to help control drawer front alignment and slide member clearances when a drawer is closed or nearly closed and is subjected to higher loads near the front of the drawer, and to provide auxiliary load support to the bearings disposed between the slide members when the drawer is at and/or near a closed position. It also would be desirable to provide such load adaptive roller carriage assemblies with independent adaptive movement of each of the rollers based on the loading conditions on the slide assembly.
It should be understood that the drawings are not to scale and that actual embodiments may differ. It also should be understood that the claims are not limited to the particular preferred embodiment illustrated, but rather cover various configurations of load adaptive roller carriage assemblies and devices using the same.